Blaško Stipan Rajić (January 7, 1878 – January 3, 1951) was a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

priest, writer and politician from the region of

Bačka Bačka ( sr-cyrl, Бачка, ) or Bácska () is a geographical and historical area within the Pannonian Plain bordered by the river Danube to the west and south, and by the river Tisza to the east. It is divided between Serbia and Hunga ...

who was known for his involvement in the

creation of Yugoslavia Yugoslavia was a state concept among the South Slavic intelligentsia and later popular masses from the 19th to early 20th centuries that culminated in its realization after the 1918 collapse of Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I and the ...

after the

Croatian national revival The Illyrian movement ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Ilirski pokret, Илирски покрет; sl, Ilirsko gibanje) was a pan-South-Slavic cultural and political campaign with roots in the early modern period, and revived by a group of young Croatian inte ...

. He wrote

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

and

prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the ...

works.

Biography

Rajić was born in Szabadka / Subotica and attended elementary school there, while his middle school education (gymnasium) and studium (theology) he had in

Kalocsa Kalocsa (; hr, Kaloča or ''Kalača''; sr, Kaloča or Калоча; german: Kollotschau) is a town in Bács-Kiskun county, Hungary. It lies south of Budapest. It is situated in a marshy but highly productive district, near the left bank of the ...

. After ending the study, he became priest on June 24, 1902. His area of service was the region of Bačka, which at the time was a southern part of

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

, and he served in villages with numerous Croat inhabitants. First, he was the chaplain in Dusnok, where he stayed for few years. There he fought against Nasarenism. In 1904 he's transferred to another village with numerous Croat inhabitants in southern Austria-Hungary,

Hercegszántó Hercegszántó ( hr, Santovo, sr, Сантово) is a village in the Bács-Kiskun County of Hungary, famous for being the birthplace of footballer Flórián Albert. Residents are Magyars, with minority of Serbs and Croats. Until the end of Wo ...

. There he has remained for three years. After chaplainship in Hercegszántó, the service brought him back to his Subotica, where he was the chaplain until 1911. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Bačka became part of newly created

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...

. Later he became the vicar in Subotica, and on that service he remained until his death in 1951. He's the author of the prayer book ''Duhovna mana''.

Political work

He early joined

Illyrian movement The Illyrian movement ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Ilirski pokret, Илирски покрет; sl, Ilirsko gibanje) was a pan-South-Slavic cultural and political campaign with roots in the early modern period, and revived by a group of young Croatian inte ...

, (Croatian national revival) along with Bačka Croats and Ivan Antunović. After the death of priest Pajo Kujundžić in 1915, another Croat from Bačka, Rajić took the lead role among Croat priests in Bačka. He has engaged himself intensely to pull Bačka into unified South Slavic country. Because of it, he travelled abroad and even participated at a Peace Conference in Paris. After seeing how things have developed after 1918, he was disappointed in his political views. September 22, 1919 he was a participant of the delegation of

Bunjevci Bunjevci ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Bunjevci, Буњевци, ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, label=, separator=" / ", Bunjevac, Буњевац, sh-Latn-Cyrl, label=, separator=" / ", Bunjevka, Буњевка) are a South Slavic sub-ethnic group living ...

that went to Paris on conference to talk with foreign diplomats. Rajić said himself, that he went into politics because the circumstances forced him to, all to help his Croat people. Later, he was a leader of

Bunjevac-Šokac Party Bunjevac-Šokac Party ( hr, Bunjevačko-šokačka stranka) was a political party of Croats in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, part of province of Bačka (today Serbia). The party was founded on September 15, 1920, in order to continue ...

(Bunjevačko-šokačka stranka), and after disagreements with party leadership, he led People's party of Vojvodina (Vojvođanska pučka stranka), and later he turned to Croatian leader Stjepan Radić, whose party, HSS, Rajić resiliently supported. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, his activity was interrupted. He was arrested and imprisoned on April 12, 1941. Greater Hungarian circles couldn't forgive him his struggle for separating Bačka and merging it to unified South Slavic state. Hungarian extremists have imprisoned him into the caserne of cavalry in Subotica, where they've tortured him. He was pulled out of there thanks to intercession of Croatian episcopate and Dr.

Alojzije Stepinac Aloysius Viktor Cardinal Stepinac ( hr, Alojzije Viktor Stepinac, 8 May 1898 – 10 February 1960) was a senior-ranking Yugoslav Croat prelate of the Catholic Church. A cardinal, Stepinac served as Archbishop of Zagreb from 1937 until his dea ...

. With the mediation of

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

, he was interned on May 25, 1941 in Franciscan monastery in Budapest. He returned to his previous service in Subotica in April 1943, and that way remained until its death in 1951. His contemporaries witnessed about him as deep thinker and as a person with firm beliefs and attitudes. He was the editor of the Croatian-language magazine from Subotica, Naše novine, the organ of Land's Christian Socialist Party ( Zemaljska kršćansko-socijalna stranka).

Rajić and Croat national revival

He was known by his persisting on Croat national consciousness of Bunjevci. When he was in Zagreb April 23, 1939, leading the 50 deputies of Bunjevci and Šokci from Bačka, he said (and next day it was in '' Hrvatski dnevnik'' newspaper): ”''Bunjevci i Šokci u Bačkoj... priznaju se za česti i uda onoga naroda koji živi u Međimurju, u Zagorju, u Lici pod Velebitom, na Hrvatskom Primorju, koji s nama isti jezik govori, najvećim dijelom istu vjeru ispovijeda, odgojen na grudima iste kulture, iz koje je ustao Ante Starčević i Stjepan Radić. Priznajemo se za česti hrvatskoga naroda, s kojim želimo dijeliti sudbinu u borbi i pregaranju za sve, što je Bog svakom narodu namijenio za čestiti, sretan i pravedan narodni život...''" Zvonik
Možemo li kazati da su Hrvati Bunjevci? Same year, on November 10, 1939, on a celebration organized on a subject of secession of Subotica from the Kingdom of Hungary, he said (and next day it stated in '' Zagrebačke novosti'': "''Izrekli smo nebrojeno puta jasno i glasno i to su svi morali čuti, da smo mi Bunjevci članovi hrvatskoga naroda... Ne samo voljom, već i svim silama nastojat ćemo da... svi mi Bunjevci ostanemo, što smo od iskona bili, Hrvati Bunjevci u sklopu današnje države...''". He wrote *''Bunjevčice: crtice iz života bunjevačkih Hrvata'', Hrv. knjiž. društvo sv. Jeronima, Zagreb, 1937.

References

External links

An International Symposium Southeastern Europe 1918-1995

Rajićevi dani

Međunarodni znanstveni skup Jugoistočna Europa 1918.-1995.
Blaško Rajić i HSS

Somborska deklaracija i njeno značenje za bačke Hrvate

Bunjevačko-šokačka stranka 1920.-1926.

Kojim je jezikom govorio Blaško Rajić
Antologija proze bunjevačkih Hrvata

Antologija poezije bunjevačkih Hrvata

Subotičke novine
Pod istom zastavom (Rajićeva slika)

Literature

* Geza Kikić: ''Antologija proze bunjevačkih Hrvata'', Matica Hrvatska, Zagreb, 1971. * Geza Kikić: ''Antologija poezije bunjevačkih Hrvata'', Matica Hrvatska, Zagreb, 1971. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rajic, Blasko History of Bačka Croatian writers Croats of Vojvodina 20th-century Croatian Roman Catholic priests 1878 births 1951 deaths Politicians from Subotica Bunjevac-Šokac Party politicians Bunjevci Writers from Subotica